FundRaising – DevopsCurry

Quick-grocery delivery provider Dunzo defers employee salaries from June-July to now in November Amid Fund Crunch

Admin-Devopscurry — Mon, 18 Sep 2023 14:54:40 +0000

Quick commerce delivery startup Dunzo, which already has been struggling to shore up fresh funds, has now told its employees that pending salaries for June and July would now be paid in November. The cash-strapped firm, which is backed by Reliance Retail, has delayed paying salaries on several occasions for these two months.

The startup had previously deferred the June and July salaries of over 50 per cent of its workforce of 1,000 to the first week of September. It also capped employee salaries at ~75,000, irrespective of their pay package.

The latest communication came from founder and chief executive Kabeer Biswas in an internal all-hands call on Friday. He also warned employees of further layoffs in case the cashflow situation worsened, without giving further details. He, however, promised that the salary for September would be paid on time in the first week of October.

Dunzo, which is valued at $800 million in its last round, may also downsize its office space in Bengaluru and has recently let go of 500 employees to mitigate costs.

Since its inception in 2015, Dunzo has managed to secure approximately $500 million in funding from investors like Reliance, Google, Lightrock, Lightbox, Blume Ventures, and others. Reliance holds the largest stake in the company, with a substantial 25.8 percent ownership, while Google is the second-largest shareholder with around 19 percent ownership, as reported by Tracxn, a private markets data provider.

Dunzo’s financial challenges have reached a critical point, with the company facing legal notices from more than seven companies and vendors, totaling over ₹11 crore in claims. In response to these financial pressures, Dunzo has resorted to three rounds of layoffs over the past year, resulting in the reduction of over 500 jobs.

The post Quick-grocery delivery provider Dunzo defers employee salaries from June-July to now in November Amid Fund Crunch appeared first on DevopsCurry.

FinTech startup CredRight Secures $9.7 Mn Funding to Expand Credit Access for MSMEs

Admin-Devopscurry — Fri, 01 Sep 2023 08:21:54 +0000

FinTech startup, CredRight, based in Hyderabad, has successfully raised approximately $9.7m, a combination of both equity and debt.

Leading the equity capital funding was the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, according to a report from Entrackr. They were accompanied by existing investors such as YourNest, Spearhead Capital, 9Unicorns, and Accion Venture Lab. On the debt capital front, the funding was generously provided by Blacksoil, Caspian Debt, RevX Capital, and Westen Capital.

The Hyderabad-based fintech, founded in 2016 by Neeraj Bansal and Vineet Jawa, aims to bridge the credit gap for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Tier-3 and 4 towns.

“We have served more than 5,000 nano enterprises, and this fundraise will help us expand our reach exponentially. Our phygital model, unique underwriting ability and deep understanding of nano enterprises helps us reach remote areas and provide meaningful loans whilst ensuring profitability,” said Bansal.

According to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), only 10 per cent of MSMEs have access to formal finance. This lacuna is compounded by the limited ability of commercial banks and traditional lending institutions to extend their services to remote locations.

CredRight aims to connect lenders with small business owners and avert the latter’s dependence on high-interest moneylenders.

According to the company, nearly 63 million MSMEs in India face a credit shortfall of around $500 billion.

CredRight’s remarkable growth over the past three years, experiencing a 10x increase in its assets under management (AUM), exemplifies its impact. The company is now aiming for an AUM of INR 2,000 crore over the next three years.

Previously,in September 2021, CredRight had another financial win by raising $2.7m in an investment round, led predominantly by 9Unicorns amongst others.

The post FinTech startup CredRight Secures $9.7 Mn Funding to Expand Credit Access for MSMEs appeared first on DevopsCurry.

Self-serve infrastructure management platform from India, Facets.cloud Raises $4 Mn

Admin-Devopscurry — Fri, 01 Sep 2023 07:31:36 +0000

Self-serve infrastructure management platform Facets.cloud has raised $4 Mn in a seed funding round led by 3one4 Capital.
Other investors who participated in the round were 100x Entrepreneurs (now Neon), and prominent angels like Abhinav Asthana, Pallav Nadhani, Aneesh Reddy, Krishna Mehra, and Sreedhar Pedinneni , among others.

Facets .cloud aims to use this capital to expand in the US market, promote and advance the platform engineering philosophy, and enhance its product offerings.
Founded in 2021 by IIT Kharagpur alumni Anshul Sao, Pravanjan Choudhury and Rohit Raveendran , the startup helps improve developer productivity by streamlining cloud deployment workflows.

Facets.cloud was co-founded in 2021 by Anshul Sao, Pravanjan Choudhury, and Rohit Raveendran – all three are alumni of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.
The platform enables self-service infrastructure management for companies with large and complex DevOps setups by automating the last mile of cloud delivery as a product – eliminating the need for organizations to build platforms in-house.

Before starting Facets, Choudhury worked as the Chief Technology Officer of Capillary Technologies for close to ten years. Anshul Sao previously served as Chief Architect at Capillary Technologies and worked at Yahoo, while Rohit Raveendran was the Principal Architect at Capillary.

Funding details
* Funding amount: $4,000,000
* Lead investor: 3one4 Capital
* Other investors: Neon, Abhinav Asthana, Pallav Nadhani, Aneesh Reddy, Krishna Mehra, Sreedhar Pedinneni
* Stage: Seed

“Facets is a game-changer for complex DevOps setups. By automating last-mile cloud delivery as a product, it empowers businesses with self-service infrastructure management, enabling enhanced efficiency and positioning them as industry leaders,” said Anurag Ramdasan, the lead partner from 3one4 Capital.

According to him, this approach of productizing internal platforms for developer self-service is gaining huge momentum among tech-first organizations.

Facets’ clients include the likes of MPL, Treebo, Capillary Technologies, and Purplle.

The post Self-serve infrastructure management platform from India, Facets.cloud Raises $4 Mn appeared first on DevopsCurry.